


In Decline

by tuesday



Series: Team Dwarf [3]
Category: Dwarf Fortress
Genre: Dwarf History & Lore, Gen, Mermaids, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23662222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: The Wave of Righteousness was a decent place to live these days, but a pale shadow of its former glory.
Series: Team Dwarf [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713793
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: What Fen Do (Instead of Going Outside), When Death Loves Flamingos





	In Decline

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pepperdoken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pepperdoken/gifts).



> One of my favorite bits of Dwarf Fortress history is that time when we got mermaids in good ocean areas and someone discovered that mermaid bones were worth a whole lot of money. Like any enterprising DF player without a shred of ethics, they immediately posted to the forums soliciting help for how to get their mermaid murder farm up and running. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=25967.0) In the next update, Toady, presumably horrified at the forums discussing whether to breed their mermaids and how to deal with the children air drowning, made mermaid bones worthless. (Presumably, some people kept their mermaid farms for worthless decorations or the challenge of it.) In the mass update after that, creatures with the [CAN_LEARN] tag were made unbutcherable. 
> 
> Mermaid farming lived and died in a very short period of time, but while it was there, we got such entertaining stories as that time someone accidentally drained their ocean trying to engage in mermaid murder. (https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/5slesn/the_ocean_is_gone_because_i_wanted_to_catch_some/)
> 
> Have a fic in dedication to this brief moment in DF history, complete with Watsonian reasons for it coming to an end. Please forgive any errors that may result from my never having run a mermaid farm myself. All my ocean biomes ended in endless flooding without trying for elaborate murder schemes and all I know about successfully running an ocean fort has been learned from other people's games and discussion.

The Wave of Righteousness was a decent place to live these days, but a pale shadow of its former glory. The comforting thrum of the seaside machinery had gone silent. The pumps were abandoned and the dwarves that had operated them were set to new posts: some pumped magma now; others had joined the small army of haulers. The sluice gates were closed and would not be reopened. The butchers' workshops were filled with the corpses of whales the hunter teams brought back.

Ober Kozoth stood at the gates and inhaled the humid, briny air, sense memory bringing with it thoughts of a different time, strange and exciting and terrible. Innovation and automation had fallen by the wayside in favor of harpoon guns. People claimed that ethics had prevailed over profits, but it was only when greed had ruined profits that the entire industry had ground to a halt.

The first dwarf to discover the worth of mer bones might as well have discovered adamantium. A masterful totem alone was worth 6000☼. That left the rest of the bones, not to mention the less profitable, but still worthwhile leather and soap that could be rendered from the corpse. Whole stacks of the soap remained in the infirmary, and some of the quivers and wineskins the dwarven militia carried were crafted from mer skin. Once, the throne room had been lined with totems to display their fortress's overwhelming wealth. Goblins had sieged in the hopes of claiming some of it for their own, and their bodies had been thrown into the sea, a little light pollution the least of Wave of Righteousness's crimes.

Boom led to bust. The bones were valuable for their rarity, because no one had thought to hunt or harvest the mer until a dead one had washed up on the shore. When whole clans had been captured or wiped out, when the sight of a free mer had dwindled from a curiosity to an impossibility, when the stacks of bones had overflown every stockpile—then and only then had the world cried enough. Elves didn't declare war on Wave of Righteousness. The kings and queens of other civilizations didn't condemn them. Goblin snatchers continued to prey upon their children, but no more than they already had. No sanctions were imposed to stop them. Traders continued to take the products of their grisly labor if they were offered. The work just stopped being worth anything.

Ober looked to the horizon, water stretched out endlessly before him. Sometimes, he could almost imagine he saw the splash of water and the glint of sun reflected off of fins, but it was only the conjuring of a restless mind. The few mer left from the holding pools had been released, but they'd been starved, sickly creatures. If any had survived, they were long gone.

Eventually, Ober had his fill of memories and turned back to the main fortress. He went inside without regret for lost glory. Some things should remain forgotten.


End file.
